A heart of gratitude

Father Lord, I just cannot thank You enough for today. Thank you for such a great gift, such a great blessing.

It all happened during a time of prayer. Jacq, who I just got to know today prayed for me, and that prayer also ministered to me, because it dawned on me that while I know that God loves me, I have been seeking solace and holding on to material things like online shopping, clothes to fill myself up, thinking that they can make me happy and feel good. Yes, dressing well can make one feel good, but it cannot go overboard. And it was a reminder that I only God can fill me up. Not food, not worldly desires like clothes, money or anything else. It is only God who can fill the hole in my heart. Not only does God fill up the emptiness in my heart, He will hold my heart in His hands because that is the safest place where it will be.

Then she started praying for me to receive the Holy Spirit because she felt God speaking to her to pray for me, including those she prayed earlier. Jill, who was beside me, also started praying for me. I felt kind of nervous, like what if I cannot receive it? What if my faith is not enough? Then they said to focus on God, and think of God, so after I calmed my nervous heart, I thought of God, of Jesus, of the times that God stood by me, forever faithful. And after a while, I felt like there was something I wanted to speak, not in English, not in words, but I was afraid that I wouldn't know how to continue after the initial burst of that one word. So I was like a baby, wanting to speak but unable to. I confided in them and Jacq said that it's like that, that it's normal, so we started again. This time round, I thanked God for the gift and then I spoke out in faith. And at that moment, I started crying. I mean, I've always known God is real, that God is always with me and with us but at that moment, I could really really feel God's presence and that God is SO real. And then after that, Jill said that actually she also felt it, and when Jacq spoke to me about it then she knew it was time. So yes, thank you Lord!! I am also thankful to Jacq and Jill for their prayers. Somehow, everything was not planned at all but things turned out so well. Really, it's divine. I sat beside Jill by chance and before that we were talking about tongues when we prayed. Never did I expect to be Holy spirit baptized today. God's ways are always higher than mine.

And during prayers, Jill gave me a vision, that I am a seed. A hand picked up a seed and held it close to His heart, then planted it into the ground. That seed grows into a strong plant. Yes, that hand belongs to my Heavenly Father God. The thing that spoke to me most during the conference was self worth. Try as hard as I might, I still cannot help but define my self worth based on what I do, how people view me. And that is such a wrong view. My worth is based on nothing else but my Father's love for me.

Last week

Because I've got so much backlog, I decided to blog photos I took using my iphone throughout the week. I'm not even a food blogger so I shouldn't be blogging with restaurant names as my blog titles. My phone has about 2500 photos. I realized that I take a lot of photos and refuse to delete them from my phone, the reason being because I want to keep them in my phone to look back on.

Last Monday, I visited my hair stylist at Jurong point to cut my hair, went back to bangs again after a year. I got tired of looking tired everyday with messy and unruly hair. With three inches off, my head felt so much lighter. Hair will always grow again so I'll say hi to longer hair a few months later. For now I'm happy with shoulder length hair!

Had dinner with my Mum at this claypot restaurant just across from the salon. Can't remember the name but it's beside Lai Lai kitchen. It's always quite crowded so I guess it's rather popular with the crowd.

Hong kong style porridge with you tiao! I like you tiao, but not when its alone. I only like it in tau suan and porridge. It was served really hot, and I guess two people can share this. Not too salty so it's a good choice.

Claypot chicken rice. Wow this was so flavourful. Alternative wording: Wow this was so so so salty. Hahaha. It was nice because it was so fragrant, mostly because of the sweet dark soya sauce. Also served really hot. I like food served hot, it's important to me, like just freshly cooked and  that it's not cooked long ago and just heated up.

Ordered this 3 egg spinach as well. 3 egg means century egg, salted egg and normal egg. My mum says this is quite a common dish but I've never tried it before. Anyone has had this before? It's like just ordinary soup with the vegetables and eggs. Not something I want to eat often. You know, like I always say, high cholesterol.

And for those who don't know, 1st of August is Nurses day! Our clinic had a mini celebration during lunch time. Though I didn't participate in performing, I enjoyed the videos made by the other departments. It was really hilarious.

It was a day of unhealthy food for my tummy, you'll see why.

Nasi lemak for lunch

Then a macaron made by one of the doctors.

Chewy junior donut from one of the nurses.

Chocolate cake from our boss.

Mini peanut butter cupcake from twelve cupcakes from the nurses.

I am really blessed and taken care of by the nurses who always look out for me, not just because of all these sweet treats but also in other aspects as well. I'm not good at expressing how I feel so I guess they feel that I'm really quiet but I'm thankful that my circumstances is different from my colleagues in the other clinics. I believe God put me there for a reason and I am just thankful, really. Every day I wonder why I am so blessed, then I remember that God loves me unconditionally.

Met Cynthia for dinner after that for an appointment that she had. Dinner at Kim Gary! Tried something that I never tried before, beef with vegetables rice. The beef was tender and flavourful, and reasonably priced for a restaurant located at Ion as well. Planned our bangkok itinerary and got carried away. Our Bangkok trip is just 24 days away, time really flies! Can't wait for it!

Fish crackers that my colleague at Jurong sent to our group chat. I'm always torn between eating crackers like these and fruits. I like fruits any time but I finish my apple so fast. I think I shall buy grapes next time!

Had an awesome service in church last Satuday. It was an evangelical service titled 'Keep calm and look up' and I was touched by so many people who accepted Christ that day. The bible always addresses worrying and stress to me but it was nice to look at it through a fresh perspective. Dinner was at Golden mile complex as (almost) usual. My favourite place for good cheap Thai food.

My Mum whatsapped me this photo while I was on the way home. It's my favourite cinnamon rolls! Because I kept talking about it and my Mum wanted to bake bread, she baked these for me. No photos of it because I was too anxious to eat it the next morning. I'm going to try to make it some time. Some time = no promises about when I will get down to it! Hahaha.

Before I left for service, I mixed the dough for my grandma to make pau, so I had pau and cinnamon roll for breakfast the next morning. I am thankful, blessed and love. I thank God for my mum and grandma(:

And look what finally came in the mail! November is comingggg!(:

Tried on and fell in love with this skirt from Forever New on Sunday when my grand-aunt treated us to lunch at Jpot again at Vivocity. Sadly I cannot become the owner of this very pretty skirt because it comes at a very hefty price tag of $99. It's like even more than the price of three of my good girl flare skirts from the tinsel rack. That is not to say that I wasn't tempted, but my mum dragged me back to reality. I was really really almost on the verge of paying for it. Then I found an alternative online! I guess I'll only receive it next week, considering the long weekend.

And I'm done with the photos from last week! I'll blog about the past weeks soon. So looking forward to 5:30pm tomorrow because that'll mark the start of my long weekend! Exciting plans ahead and I can't wait! Tomorrow is going to be such a busy day but I know I will get through it even if it means over time!!

Land of Dim sum Day 1

Finally starting on my Hong Kong posts after much procrastination. We left Singapore on flight TR2068 in the afternoon. We took Tiger Airlines. It was my first time taking a budget flight and what I can say is that you get what you pay for. We paid about $250 for the tickets, not the cheapest since I've heard from my friends that it gets even cheaper when other airlines have sale prices. My friend booked her air tickets to Bangkok for less than $200! The aircraft was really small, and the amount of leg room left much to be desired but like I said, you get what you pay for. I like the feeling of having meals on board because it makes me happy but I refused to pay for the local fare they serve on the plane so we ate at the airport at Canele first.

We touched down at about 8 and took bus A21 from the airport to Prince Edward where our hotel was located. We actually thought of so many ways to get to from the airport to the hotel. The first we thought of was taxi, but it was costly. We also thought of taking the airport express, but it was also not worth it for the price. So luckily Amanda found a bus that would take us from the airport to the hotel, and it only cost us only HKD$33 (Approx. SGD$5), compared to S$40 or even more taking a cab. It didn't take us that long to locate the counter to buy the octopus cards and then walk to the bus terminal. We soon found ourselves on the bus, checking social media for updates using the free wifi provided. I was watching out for the stops and where to alight though, afraid that we'd miss the stop. I printed the map from Google maps to guide ourselves to the hotel. It was about 10 to 15 minutes walk.

As we walked, I felt really excited to be on a foreign land, and the dark alleys remind me of the police dramas that I watched. I got a little scared since it was already late and the streets were rather empty and quiet. But we reached our hotel in no time at all.

And yes, the hotel room was indeed very small! It's alright, by Hong Kong standards since they have a shortage of space.

The view when we entered the room.

And I was wondering where the wardrobe was, until we spotted this. I've never seen just a small compartment for clothes. Usually it's at least a cupboard with a door, right?

Sure, the clever use of mirrors made the room look bigger but the room was still small. Didn't take photos of the bathroom. The shower area was really the smallest I've seen. No area for movement at all.

So after we put our baggage in the hotel, we decided to go and look for food. It was about 11pm and we didn't have any proper dinner, unless we counted the meal we had the airport as dinner. Or maybe we just wanted an excuse to eat. Hahaha. How could we not? In the land of eating and shopping.

Night lights.

We walked quite a distance but we still couldn't find food that we wanted to eat, so we settled for the convenience stores. I realise that convenience stores are the first shops we visit when we are in a foreign land, just like we did in Korea.

I bought bread with cheese cubes interspersed in it and Vitasoy! Locally produced food yo. Haha.
Amanda had curry rice and my Mum had bread as well. I wish they have this in Singapore. Brown rice and cheese, and cut into such thick slices!

Then we walked past a shop selling dou hua with orange sugar on top. Couldn't resist and bought a portion to share. Wow the dou hua was so soft. Really awesome, I'm guessing that it was handmade.

That's all for day one, since we reached the hotel so late, there was hardly anything we could do but look for food then go to bed after that.

Day two is coming up! Okay maybe not so soon, I haven't filtered the photos yet.